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[Mikademus]

DF is a wonderful game, and I do enjoy ASCII. The only real drawback of it is the colour representation, which sometimes can be quite ghastly. For instance, my latest fort is surrounded by red sand and soil, which is superlatively ugly and hard on the eyes, and tweaking the colour settings on a per-game basis is not very attractive.

Anywho, I recently came across something called the Doryen Library, which is a presentation library for Roguelikes that uses TrueColour (cross-platform). This would be very attractive to DF, IMHO.

Please see this page (there is also a demonstration video at the home of the site): http://jice.nospam.googlepages.com/thedoryenlibrary

[Fieari]

DF doesn't use curses.  It uses OpenGL.  It can technically do this already, but the entire interface was built on the assumption that there are only 16 colors to choose from.  Those 16 can be any colors you like at least.

Toady has said he'll be rewriting the interface when he has no other choice, which MAY be soon (after armies), but maybe not.

[Lord Licorice]

If the terrain tiles in particular are bothering you, you can also change this tag in /data/init/init.txt:

[VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES]
to
[VARIED_GROUND_TILES:NO]

That will change the ground to a uniform appearance (periods only) that should help.

[Mikademus]

Thank you for your reply. Though not really related to what I was addressing, I do have that very option turned on (or rather, I have varied tiles turned off), and that helps. Still, I am looking forward to a rewrite of the interface, and I think the link I gave above provides a very nice example of how well a Roguelike can look. As it is now, regardless of how you teak the colours, certain terrains will be radioactive on your eyes.

[ February 13, 2008: Message edited by: Mikademus ]

[Mike Mayday]

I think 90% of the people playing DF are waiting for a rewrite of the interface. It's just not gonna happen until all the core functions are implemented.

[Capntastic]

quote:Originally posted by Mike Mayday:
<STRONG>I think 90% of the people playing DF are waiting for a rewrite of the interface.</STRONG>

I think your estimation is skewed by the fact that the people who want more graphical stuff are an incredibly vocal minority, whereas people who like playing the game more than looking at it are pretty laid back.

[Guy]

I want a better interface, but in the sense where there's one button for "cancel," instead of right now where sometimes it's space and other times it's F9.

[Greiger]

A better interface would likely bring in more players, but alot of the veteran  players probably don't even notice the interface shortcomings anymore.

Really my only gripe is the menu only being at 1/3rd size and trying to figure out which green glass item on the list is the statue I want to make.

(I wonder if I qualify as a veteran...probably not)

[ February 13, 2008: Message edited by: Greiger ]

[Yobgod]

"sometimes it's space and other times it's F9."

Agreed. I vote that we should make 'Escape' cancel the current screen, and 'F9' drop you to the main menu. That would reduce my navigation errors immensely.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Mikademus]

quote:Originally posted by Yobgod:
<STRONG>"sometimes it's space and other times it's F9."

Agreed. I vote that we should make 'Escape' cancel the current screen, and 'F9' drop you to the main menu. That would reduce my navigation errors immensely.</STRONG>

True, only two 'cancel' buttons is too difficult. We need at least three to make it simpler.

But really, I understand what you're saying, space _always_ backs up one screen (and cancels when in a special screen) and ESC would always return to main.

[ February 13, 2008: Message edited by: Mikademus ]

[numerobis]

quote:Originally posted by Greiger:
<STRONG>Really my only gripe is the menu only being at 1/3rd size and trying to figure out which green glass item on the list is the statue I want to make.</STRONG>

Hit tab a few times.